I heard the words from our well-meaning friends last night, that they desperately needed to hear the message that they should be expecting great things from our great God. They were tired of the old adage that said to expect suffering and expect wrestling. They wanted to expect revival.

They aren’t wrong. We certainly can ask our Father for amazing and abundant things (John 14:13, Ephesians 3:20, 1 John 5:14). I have no shortage of prayers speaking words asking for a treasure trove, miracles around the corner every moment.

We pray for abundance, most times I feel, because we feel like there is something missing. This something missing doesn’t necessarily have to be the next big step God has for your life, or a material object[s], but it could even be what we feel is missing within us.

I was wounded by a co-worker in ways that left me feeling tossed to-and-fro in the workplace. I sat in an empty room on the phone with my husband, hoping for some validation. Through tears as he began to comfort me, I interrupted and said, “I know, I know. I’m enough.” He stopped me to remind me gently, “you are not enough, but He is.”

Earlier this week, Lore Ferguson-Wilbert wrote a blog on “The Gift of Lack”. Through her beautifully written words, she is able to faithfully and poignantly say that God is the gift in the midst of lack.

He is the gift.

Every week, I re-do our calendar that shows the tasks of the day for both James and I, a little form of showing I have seeming control over the next seven days. I always put a little scripture, or a quote, most times that I’m digging off of twitter while the chalk pen dries. This week, in God’s great kindness, I wrote this:

Everything is necessary that God sends our way; nothing can be necessary that he withholds.

— John Newton

Personally, in this season of “what’s next,” I have found I am expectant in a way that has become a breeding ground of discontentment for what He has given me here and now. For my friends, the great wisdom in my husband left Him asking them, “in all of this, then, is God enough?” Even in the not-enough that I feel of myself all of the time, am I left attempting to muster up the strength to be enough, or will I let God be my strength in my not-enoughness?

Blessed be the Holy Spirit, working within us and through us from one degree of glory to the next. Jesus is enough. Our Father knows what He is doing, and we can rest in what He has given for today without worry for tomorrow. As I recount the many ways in which I shake my fist and ask when He is going to come through, I need to also recount the many ways in which I can shout from the mountain tops His great faithfulness to a wretch like me.